Nursery dropped 12 month old baby off changing table - can any one help?

[Yokomoyr]

[Name redacted by MNHQ] nursery in Birmingham:

During the first 2 hours of the first day of my then 12 month old son being there - they dropped him off a changing table onto a hard floor.

He had a huge lump on his head and was quite drowsy for a week afterwards, but neither A+E nor GP seemed too concerned.

Now he is struggling with communication and when we tried to get a medical examiner and solicitor to help us get some money out of the nursery to pay for Speech and Language Therapy, we have pretty much been told it cannot be linked and nothing has been done.

I would like someone to at least tell me they will look into this nursery or provide some help in the private SLT (as NHS is taking >6 months to refer through) - is that unreasonable?

Put my most precious person in the care of someone else and in an inexcusable moment when full attention was meant to be on him, there was a serious error which lead to a severe head injury in a 1 year old child.

Must admit I feel quite let down.

For the PPs saying the child was left unattended - the OP doesn't say that. DCs can fall from changing tables when adults are beside them. Children wriggle

Honestly, it really isn’t hard to stop a child falling off. I’m very petite and have worked in an under 2 room for the past 8 years and never come came close to allowing a child to fall off, even the wrigglers or kickers! Proper units at a height should have a little barrier to stop children ‘rolling off’ and if they start to kick up a fuss, take them off or put the mat down on the floor. If you aren’t capable of keeping them safe on the unit, you shouldn’t be doing their nappy there.

Also to add, also accidents can and do happen, but that’s where the nursery need to take full responsibility and do through the right procedures.

Also to add, also accidents can and do happen, but that’s where the nursery need to take full responsibility and do through the right procedures.
Really concerning if they haven't. But the OP doesn't seem very clear in that respect.

@Comedycook

Sorry but just wanted to say that getting an MRI etc is ridiculous

My dd had an MRI scan because she had speech problems. There had been no injury. I just wanted to add that an MRI scan is not necessarily a ridiculous idea for speech problems.

I am not your DD’s doctor- presumably there was an indication for the scan in your daughters case. 98% of MRI scans in children with speech delay will show absolutely nothing and most of the other 2% will be of uncertain significance. From OP there would be no indication to do one whatsoever and I maintain it would actually be negligent to do it.

I think the communication difficulties and the falling are not linked.

He had a bump, he was checked by A&E and a doctor and both saw no reason to be concerned. If they had, then you'd be right to take further action.

Regarding the fall, all you should do there is complain and change nurseries.

You are massively overreacting.

Gosh so sorry how upsetting
Report to ofsted via [email protected] or 0300 123 4666.
Write formally to manager detailing your complaint

@Sirzy

Accidents happen. Given multiple medical professionals have said they aren’t concerned and they can’t link it to the fall I’m Not sure what you expect from here?

I also don’t like the naming and shaming nature of the post. You could have asked the same without naming the nursery

Would you say this so blasé if it was your son? The ops child is a BABY. He should be safe at nursery and he wasn't. That sort of accident should.not happen. Tripping and falling outside yes, but not where a staff member should be with that child every moment they're on the changing table. Shame on you for dismissing this mum..shame on you.

@Thefaceofboe

For the PPs saying the child was left unattended - the OP doesn't say that. DCs can fall from changing tables when adults are beside them. Children wriggle

Honestly, it really isn’t hard to stop a child falling off. I’m very petite and have worked in an under 2 room for the past 8 years and never come came close to allowing a child to fall off, even the wrigglers or kickers! Proper units at a height should have a little barrier to stop children ‘rolling off’ and if they start to kick up a fuss, take them off or put the mat down on the floor. If you aren’t capable of keeping them safe on the unit, you shouldn’t be doing their nappy there.

This

I’m not dismissing her concerns. But she is doing nobody any good going around in circles. It’s not blasé to say that multiple medical professionals have confirmed that thankfully as scary as it was this wasn’t a serious head injury.

Feeding her fear isn’t going to do anything to help.

You are massively overreacting.

If this were your baby I'm sure you wouldn't be so blasé about it.

@Tinkles78

I'm sorry your son had a bump to his head, it's never nice no matter how it happens. But if multiple doctors have checked him over and can't find any reason for concern then you will get absolutely nowhere with suing for damages.

Is your son 12 months old? Kinda hard to assess speech and language regression at that age, they're only just starting to speak!

If you aren't happy with the nursery then you should move him elsewhere, but really I think you have to accept that accidents can happen in all settings, but babies really are pretty resilient!

A 'bump to his head'? He FELL OFF A CHANGING TABLE

I am not your DD’s doctor- presumably there was an indication for the scan in your daughters case. 98% of MRI scans in children with speech delay will show absolutely nothing and most of the other 2% will be of uncertain significance.
From OP there would be no indication to do one whatsoever and I maintain it would actually be negligent to do it.

I'm just giving my own experience...I have no idea about whether the ops DC would need one or not. And actually my dds showed absolutely nothing significant

YABVU. Speech and language difficulties are very common - as are bumps on the head in young children. There is absolutely no way it can be reasonably linked to what happened at nursery.

Accidents happen, but this does sound negligent.

Did you report the nursery to Ofsted?

Baby is 18 months you are concerned 6 months waiting list for referral. Buy some books do the exercises they suggest and wait for a referral appointment. My DB didn't speak untill he was three. My neighbor child just started speaking at 4.

As someone who works with children I’m struggling to see how this happened if the child was being properly supervised.

What is wrong with posters on here?
Stating it was a bump to the head, a minor injury etc is ridiculous.
THE CHILD FELL ONTO A HARD SURFACE FROM HEIGHT.
The OP has every right to want this investigated. The nursery is liable and should be reported as their nursery is not safe.
Would you be happy to go and pick your child up to be told they'd fallen from height onto a hard floor?
No, so stop being ridiculous and actually answer the post as you would normally.

Good grief! Noone is disputing that this event happened

Presumably the op went through the reporting and complaints procedure at the time (this is clearly not a recent event).

But the op hopes to be able to claim for private SALT from the nursery based on the fall being a cause of her child's speech problems.

The point of the post is not reporting to OFSTED, or accident books, or ensuring that this doesn't happen to another child - that will have been dealt with previously (if not then OP was presumably happy with how the nursery dealt with it at the time).

The point is getting cash to pay for treatment and for THAT they need a medical opinion that supports their hypothesis. Which they don't have.

The Head Injury charity mentioned by a pp sounds like a good next step if op wants to ensure all avenues are pursued.

@VladmirsPoutine

You are massively overreacting.

If this were your baby I'm sure you wouldn't be so blasé about it.

Yeah parents on Mumsnet moan about everything normally. Ridiculous comments. I saw a post where a mum wanted to complain because the teacher had said the weekend was the best part of the week. A baby falls off a changing table from height...oh it's nothing

@Droite

But now you are just out for £££s, and that's not going to help anyone except your bank balance.

How is it going to help OP's bank balance given her intention to use it for therapy which her child needs? In practice, if damages were awarded they would be awarded to the child anyway and any use of the money would be overseen independently.

People who complain about compensation culture never seen to educate themselves on how the system works.

A payout that's supposed to cover therapy costs would be filling the hole in OP's bank balance that funding that treatment would have cost her so it absolutely would Impact her bank balance. I fully expect that the compo culture OP would be looking to be awarded for her 'pain and suffering' too.

This is a non starter as there is zero medical evidence anyway.

OP.

If the NHS deems your soon to need SaLT then they will foot the bill. Many young children have communication difficulties. At the age of 2 my oldest could say 4 words. Said oldest daughter is now in secondary school and arguing with me about taking out the bins.

My youngest had had many, many head bumps in their time. The one where they tripped, whacked their head on the door threshold and gave themselves 2 black eyes springs to mind. Or the one where they jumped off the school climbing frame and faceplanted the floor because they thought they could fly is another memorable one.

Although the nursery should have been watching him better, correlation doesn't equal causation. A child hitting their head hard enough to cause a traumatic brain injury wouldn't just have communication-based SaLT issues. It would be usual to see other traumatic brain injury related effects e.g. problems with walking, memory, swallowing, behaviour, cognition.

Would you say this so blasé if it was your son?
The ops child is a BABY. He should be safe at nursery and he wasn't. That sort of accident should.not happen. Tripping and falling outside yes, but not where a staff member should be with that child every moment they're on the changing table.
Shame on you for dismissing this mum..shame on you.

I think most people would be upset at the time but it is obviously months later(at least) and all medical checks showed it was a bump to the head and nothing else. At this point I would not be linking speech and language difficulties(which are extremely common in children, most people I know have had a kid go to SALT at some point myself included) with a bump to the head months ago.

I would say if you are struggling for money to pay for SALT then getting an evening/weekend job would probably be more fruitful than pursuing this. I wouldn't be blase about speech difficulties, like I said one of mine had them but I would and did be a parent and get them treatment not fixate on one of probably many bumps to the head that my child got.

OP you still haven't told us how old your child is and how his communication is affected. I suggest you heed the medical experts advice re his head injury and get yourself some therapy, as you clearly need to talk this through with someone.

@Mynameismargot

Would you say this so blasé if it was your son? The ops child is a BABY. He should be safe at nursery and he wasn't. That sort of accident should.not happen. Tripping and falling outside yes, but not where a staff member should be with that child every moment they're on the changing table. Shame on you for dismissing this mum..shame on you.

I think most people would be upset at the time but it is obviously months later(at least) and all medical checks showed it was a bump to the head and nothing else. At this point I would not be linking speech and language difficulties(which are extremely common in children, most people I know have had a kid go to SALT at some point myself included) with a bump to the head months ago.

I would say if you are struggling for money to pay for SALT then getting an evening/weekend job would probably be more fruitful than pursuing this. I wouldn't be blase about speech difficulties, like I said one of mine had them but I would and did be a parent and get them treatment not fixate on one of probably many bumps to the head that my child got.

You're all focusing on the OP wanting money allegedly but in her original post she is concerned about what has happened to her child.